Big brother Mozzie
by LoveHotch-CM
Summary: PROMPT STORY! Neal gets punished unfairly for stealing a toy and Mozzie comes to his rescue. How does Peter deal with it? WARNING: Contains spanking of a child by parental figure. Based on the Moppets Universe created by colakirk.
1. Undeserved punishment

**Big brother Mozzie**

**A/N: after reading Colakirk's story I realized that this story is similar to hers and that was unintentional on my part, but this was a prompt from another website in which more than one person wrote for so of course there are going to be some similarities.**

Peter was on the couch reading through some files. He'd had an awful afternoon. He had been cursing Elizabeth's work trip timing since the first evening alone with two hyperactive little boys refusing to go to bed, and it had slowly gotten worse.

Today, a simple trip to the toyshop with Neal, something he usually loved doing, had resulted in stress and tears.

On the way out of the store, alarms had blared and after checking through Peter's purchases the manager asked to look through Neal's backpack. Inside the open bag was a small stuffed bear with the tags still in place. Peter couldn't believe Neal would steal a two dollar toy knowing if he would've asked Peter would have bought it for him.

After settling the issue with the manager and handing the stuffed bear back to the man he'd dragged Neal home and straight up to his room and wasted no time in baring the little boy's butt and positioning him over his lap and bringing his hand down on the little butt in front of him twenty times before letting Neal up.

"Listen son, no more stealing. You know better, its rule number two in this house."

Okay daddy, I won't steal anything ever again." The little boy said wiping the tears out of his eyes. He figured he might as well apologize since Peter wasn't going to believe him anyway.

Neal hadn't been his usual clingy self afterwards. He'd been very quiet all evening, barely touching his dinner before going to bed without any prompting from Peter. Something was not right. He'd called Elizabeth who'd made her feelings about the situation very clear, but she also was clueless about their youngest boy's behavior.

Peter had been trying to read the same file for the past half hour but he couldn't stop thinking about Neal.

Part of the distraction was that he knew he wasn't alone in the room. There had been a small presence on the stairs for about ten minutes.

Peter finally gave in when he decided his son wasn't going back to bed anytime soon.

"Mozzie, it's late." He didn't look up from the file, "Time for you to be asleep."

The little boy, unfazed at being caught, moved slowly down the stairs and across the room to the couch and settled himself down next to Peter.

Mozzie watched his Dad carefully before speaking, "Neal didn't do anything wrong."

Peter sighed and put the file down on the coffee table, "The stuffed bear was in his bag son."

Mozzie pushed his glasses up his nose, "Circumstantial."

"Excuse me?" Peter raised an eyebrow at his oldest son.

Mozzie sighed dramatically, "I thought you were an investigator!"

Peter raised his eyebrow at his oldest son, "I'd watch your tone if I were you."

Mozzie looked a bit sheepish, "What I mean is if Neal was a case, you would have looked for more evidence before handing down the sentence."

"Mozzie," Peter held the bridge of his nose, he felt a headache coming on.

"I bet you if you dusted for prints, there wouldn't be any of Neal's fingerprints on that stuffed bear." Mozzie slipped off the couch and stood in between Peter's knees. "I would be happy to carry out the analysis."

Peter narrowed his eyes at the little boy.

Unfazed, Mozzie continued his assessment, "I mean a character study alone would point you in the right direction. When have you ever seen Neal do anything but tell you the truth under the slightest bit of pressure?" Mozzie put his hands on Peter's knees, "Yesterday he confessed that he hadn't washed his face when he was supposed to. I mean come on! He's my brother and I love him but he wouldn't make a very good spy, cracks far too easily under pressure."

"Please think about it Peter. Neal doesn't lie to me and if he says he didn't do it, I believe him." Mozzie leaned forward and wrapped his arms around Peter's waist, still standing in-between his knees, "He needs you to believe him too."

Mozzie pushed himself up and patted Peter's knee before scampering off back upstairs.

Peter stared after him. He couldn't quite believe he'd just been lectured by a ten year old. And not only that, but it had made perfect sense.


	2. Apologies

**A/N: Sorry for the long wait. I've been busy lately. Hope you all like it.**

**Big Brother Mozzie**

**Previously on White Collar…**

_Peter stared after him. He couldn't quite believe he'd just been lectured by a ten year old. And not only that, but it had made perfect sense._

Chapter 2 Apologies

Peter sat there on the couch in his living room thinking about what his oldest had said and knew he would have to apologize to Neal.

'Well better go do it now or I won't be able to sleep with this hanging over me.' Peter thought.

Sighing Peter stood up and made his way up to the little boy's room.

He knocked on the door. "Go away me not want to talt to you" Neal said from under the blanket.

"Neal, please I need to talk to you, I know you didn't steal the toy from the store today." Peter said easing the door open and walking into the room taking a seat on his littlest boy's bed.

"Neal, look at me." Peter said lifting the little boy's chin so he made eye contact. "I'm sorry I didn't believe you when you told me you didn't take the toy today and I'm sorry for spanking you for something you didn't do."

Neal for his part sat there staring at his daddy. "Otay, me forgive you daddy and me love you." Neal said giving Peter a giant hug. "But how did you know me didn't do it?" the little boy asked.

"Well Mozzie convinced me that you didn't do it and I do believe you I just didn't give you a chance to explain earlier." Peter said.

"Oh otay tan me go bact (back) to bed now," Neal said yawning and rubbing his eyes with his little hands.

Peter chuckled "Sure buddy, goodnight daddy loves you" Peter said kissing his son on the forehead and leaving the room.

**The End!**

**A/N: Sorry it's so short, but it's all I could come up with.**


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